Again of the online! Kiss my face! Jacka-nacka-nory! That’s proper, Lynn, it’s a busy week for actor, comic, author, podcaster and all-round showbiz Swiss military knife Steve Coogan.
He’s not solely starring in well timed new Channel 4 comedy-drama Chivalry, created with co-star Sarah Solemani, however, as a sure Alan Gordon Partridge, is about to embark on a Ted Speak-style dwell tour known as Stratagem. Which deserves credit score for working as a possible Apprentice staff title too. Textbook.
Within the meantime, we’ve ranked all his main TV roles from worst to finest. As Alan Partridge likes to say earlier than intercourse: let battle begin …
15. Tony Ferrino (1997-1998)
A uncommon misfire from Coogan’s early days as a flat-out character comedian. The smarmy, deeply sexist Portuguese crooner starred in spoof showbiz spectacular The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon (regardless that he couldn’t pronounce the phrase “phenomenon”). A two-time winner of “Denmark’s coveted Golden Throat award”, he specialised in treacly Euro-ballads and any resemblance to the likes of Julio Iglesias, Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck was, we think about, completely coincidental. Coogan went for it wholeheartedly however Ferrino was a one-joke creation, stretched thinner than his personal skin-tight leatherette trousers.
14. Thom Payne – Happyish (2015)
In a job initially meant for the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, this US black comedy starred Coogan as a whining middle-aged advert exec compelled to accept being “happyish”. It geared toward literate and Woody Allen-ish however got here off as smugly pretentious and failed to search out its humorous bone. After one underwhelming collection, it was axed. Unluckyish.
13. Dr Horrible – Dr Horrible’s Home of Horrible (2001)
This six-part anthology parodied each Brit horror movies and Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Surprising. Coogan launched tales because the eponymous slaphead and starred in every instalment, spoofing such spooky staples as witchcraft, mad scientists and voodoo curses. Which presumably sounded funnier on paper than it turned out onscreen.
12. Pauline Calf (1993-2003)
“I’m 24, single and gagging for it. Solely joking, I’m 25.” Paul’s brassy bombshell sister, performed by Coogan in drag, starred in Pauline Calf’s Wedding ceremony Video. This Bafta-winning particular, subtitled Three Fights, Two Weddings and a Funeral, adopted her tottering up the aisle in the direction of fiance Spiros (Patrick Marber). The Patrick Swayze superfan’s catchphrase was “I’ve had him!”. Below pseudonym Paulette Vache, she was the creator of two self-help books: Stallion Coronary heart and She Shat Herself. Dated gags and the whiff of misogyny forestall Pauline inserting greater.
11. Nick Lee – Cruise of the Gods (2002)
This feature-length dramedy was primarily notable for launching the TV careers of James Corden and David Walliams – to not point out a drug-addled Russell Model, who acquired fired after heading ashore for nights of debauchery in a strip membership. Set aboard a fan cruise held in honour of fictitious 80s sci-fi collection Youngsters of Castor, it finds Coogan taking part in to sort because the present’s cocky former star. He had since gone on to Hollywood (newest movie credit score: Sherlock Holmes in Miami) whereas his castmates, nicely, hadn’t.
10. Dr Shiny – Curb Your Enthusiasm (2008)
As Larry David’s floppy-haired psychiatrist, Coogan’s one-episode stint was definitely memorable. The Therapists discovered Dr Shiny meting out unwise romantic recommendation to LD – notably to present estranged spouse Cheryl an ultimatum – earlier than changing into his affected person’s partner-in-crime, mugging Cheryl’s personal shrink and ending up in jail. Discuss a dramatic arc.
9.Cameron O’Neill – Chivalry(2022)
“I’m making an attempt to be good however typically it comes out horrible.” Coogan riffs amusingly on his unreconstructed picture on this cameo-crammed comedy-drama about sexual politics within the post-#MeToo period. As foppish, womanising Hollywood movie producer Cameron O’Neill, he’s mainly Alan Partridge in a greater go well with as he struggles with the brand new world of feminine company, poisonous masculinity and on-set intimacy coordinators. Regardless of his terror of being cancelled, he can’t resist relationship actors and assistants half his age – a paradox with which Coogan additionally performs in The Journey.
8. Gareth Cheeseman – Coogan’s Run (1995)
Coogan performed all six protagonists on this anthology collection however the already established Paul Calf apart, by far probably the most memorable was egotistical pc soundcard salesman Cheeseman. Carrying his finest Hugo Boss go well with and shouting: “You’re a tiger! Grrr!” into the lavatory mirror, he desperately tried to seal an enormous contract at a gross sales convention till destiny tragically intervened. An enjoyably terrible creation, though Gareth’s stunted feelings and automotive fixation had echoes of you-know-who.
7. Bing Crosby – Sunshine (2008)
This three-parter from Royle Household writers Craig Money and Phil Mealey is one thing of a uncared for gem. Coogan performed it fairly straight as gambling-addicted Stockport binman Bob “Bing” Crosby, kicked out of the marital house and compelled to maneuver in along with his ailing geriatric father (the magnificent Bernard Hill). In a efficiency filled with allure, he adroitly dealt with its tonal shifts from well-observed whimsy to weepy tragedy.
6. DCI Clive Driscoll – Stephen (2021)
Primarily based on Driscoll’s memoir In Pursuit of the Fact, this engrossing ITV miniseries recreated the Lawrence household’s combat for justice after the sickening racist homicide of teenager Stephen. Because the Met detective who lastly gave the case the respect it deserved, Coogan gave a restrained flip as diligent Driscoll, belatedly catching the killers with “frequent sense coppering”. He arguably lacked dramatic heft however, as an everyman hero, dealt with a uncommon straight function with aplomb.
5. Samuel Pepys – The Personal Lifetime of Samuel Pepys (2003)
Coogan donned a luxuriant wig and led a heavyweight forged on this unjustly forgotten curiosity. Because the philandering Seventeenth-century diarist, placed on trial for embezzling navy funds, he was impishly irreverent and filled with eyebrow-waggling intrigue. The bawdy, Blackadder-esque costume comedy proved a pre-Christmas rankings hit for BBC Two, pulling in 3 million viewers.
4. Tommy Saxondale (2006-2007)
“Hear, you bloody dildo, I used to be hoovering up furlongs of the satan’s dandruff with Lucifer Reed and altering the fuse on Peter Frampton’s vocoder when you had been nonetheless shitting rusks.” One in all Coogan’s extra underrated creations was this spiky suburban antihero, whose mid-00s sitcom ran for 2 collection. The roadie turned pest controller had anger points and a passion for his personal voice however was genuinely witty, whereas his relationships with girlfriend Magz (Ruth Jones) and protege Raymond (Rasmus Hardiker) had been slyly affecting. Sure Saxondale traits really feel like a dry run for later iterations of Partridge.
3. Paul Calf (1993-2003)
Bag o’ shite. The bleach-mulleted Mancunian lager lout started life as a standup character known as Duncan Disorderly. He shot to cult fame in 1993 when, renamed Paul Calf, he stole the present on Jonathan Ross’ selection car Saturday Zoo. The coed-hating, Cortina-driving pub thinker later starred in an episode of Coogan’s Run and two video diaries. Hidden depths got here from his flashes of insecurity and obsession with ex Julie, nevertheless it was his much-abused finest mate “fats blobby bastard cake-in-his-gob Bob” (John Thomson) we felt sorry for.
2. Himself – The Journey (2010-2020)
It doesn’t get far more meta than this midlife disaster comedy, which finds real-life frenemies Coogan and Rob Brydon taking part in exaggerated variations of themselves on culinary street journeys across the Lake District, Italy, Spain and Greece. Cue Michelin-starred meals and aggressive impersonations. What might be an enormous in-joke is elevated into existential brilliance by Michael Winterbottom’s path and Coogan’s precision-tuned efficiency, during which he’s the extra profitable however darkish and dissatisfied of the riffing duo. In later collection, Steve’s struggles to bond along with his scholar son, and the demise of his father, had been quietly devastating.
1. Alan Partridge (1991-present)
What else may it's? North Norfolk’s most gaffe-prone broadcaster is the half Coogan was born to play. The 56-year-old has now been carrying Partridge’s trademark blazers for greater than half his life and it exhibits. He is aware of his each twitch and nuance, having painstakingly fleshed him out from a catchphrase-spouting caricature to a layered creation of refined pathos. From his beginnings as a bumptious sports activities reporter to his present co-hosting gig on One Present-alike journal programme This Time, the sports activities casual-clad little Englander has change into one in every of our most enduring and beloved comedian characters. Coogan as soon as known as Alan an albatross, however has since softened, admitting he has change into “a battered however snug outdated leather-based jacket”. Or maybe a classic pair of mesh-backed driving gloves. Aha!
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